on url shorteners — URL shortening services have been around for a number of years. Their original purpose was to prevent cumbersome URLs from getting fragmented by broken email clients that felt the need to wrap everything to an 80 column screen. But it's 2009 now, and this problem no longer exists.

DiggBar Digs up Bitter Nostalgia Among Critics — Digg's new URL-shortening feature is aggregating as much controversy for the popular web site as it is traffic. — Critics are taking aim at the structure of DiggBar — a toolbar appearing at the top of a browser when users click a link at Digg.

World's Fastest Broadband at $20 Per Home — If you get excited about the prospect of really, really fast broadband Internet service, here's a statistic that will make heart race. Or your blood boil. Or both. — Pretty much the fastest consumer broadband in the world …

Analysis: Which URL Shortening Service Should You Use? — URL shortening services are experiencing a renaissance in the age of Twitter. When every character counts, these services reduce long URLs to tiny forms. But which is the best to use, when so many are offered and new ones seem to appear each day?

Google's Plan for Out-of-Print Books Is Challenged — SAN FRANCISCO — The dusty stacks of the nation's great university and research libraries are full of orphans — books that the author and publisher have essentially abandoned. They are out of print, and while they remain under copyright …

Murdoch Wants A Google Rebellion — The media mogul says Google is stealing from publishers. It could be the call to arms that newsrooms need. — Rupert Murdoch threw down the gauntlet to Google Thursday, accusing the search giant of poaching content it doesn't own and urging media outlets to fight back.

The iPhone Gold Rush — IS there a good way to nail down a steady income? In this economy? — Try writing a successful program for the iPhone. — Last August, Ethan Nicholas and his wife, Nicole, were having trouble making their mortgage payments. Medical bills from the birth of their younger son were piling up.

The VC walking dead: Extended edition — [Update: Warburg Pincus LLC has been taken off the list of the walking dead. The data did not reflect the $15 billion fund it closed last April.] — A couple weeks ago, Dan Primack of PE Hub blogged a list of venture capital firms he termed the …

How the Conficker Problem Just Got Much Worse — On the surface, April 1 came and went without a peep from the dreaded Conficker megaworm. But security experts see a frightening reality, one where Conficker is now more powerful and more dangerous than ever.

Facebook wants you to give credit where credit is due — Facebook is testing out a way for people to show how much they appreciate friends' status updates, links and other items on the site — its a new feature called “credits.” The idea is a more advanced form of commenting or liking …

Twitter Wouldn't Sell For $1 Billion, Says Source — Update to our post last night about Google/Twitter talks: New sources say that Google is interested in acquiring Twitter, and has had talks with the company about a deal. Google's internal valuation, however, would value the company …

AT&T retracts new terms of service, apologizes — Looks like the uproar over AT&T's recently-tweaked wireless terms of service banning video streaming and p2p activity caused some hasty rethinking in Dallas — the company just sent us this statement:

Chrome marketshare for March 2009 — Google Chrome continued its upward marketshare march in March. I was looking at my browser breakdown tonight. Here's what I've got from the last 30 days in Google Analytics: — Some different browser marketshare numbers:

Wikia Death Proves Google Is Search-Startup Killer — Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales' open source, human-powered Google killer died a quiet death Tuesday, making Wikia.com the latest object lesson in the futility of trying to unseat Google as the king of search engines.

Google: Forget Twitter, Pay A Big Div, Bernstein Says — A few weeks back, Bernstein Research analyst Jeffrey Lindsay wrote a provocative research piece asserting that Internet companies have a long and terrible track record of destroying shareholder cash by acquiring pre-business model start-ups.

Yahoo Music Soon Expected To Open Up — Yahoo Music, which has been shedding services in recent years, is about to add one. — The company in coming days plans to announce a feature that will pull together music content from companies like Amazon, iTunes and YouTube in an area …

Google force feeds Web 2.0 to US gov — And it comes right back up... Web 2.0 Expo When uber-Googler Andrew McLaughlin joined the Barack Obama Transition Team, charged with prepping the new administration for inauguration day, he had dreams of “bringing Web 2.0 to Washington.”

Windows on Netbook PCs: A Year in Review — It's hard to believe it's been a year since we first started to see netbook PCs running Windows come to market. — Little did we know that these devices would evolve so much in such a short time. A year ago, they were Internet-centric devices defined mainly …

BakerTweet: @thehungry, the donuts are fresh — There's little as pleasant in life as freshly-baked donuts. Or chocolate cake, or perhaps cup cakes or sourdough bread. That's why more bakeries should consider investing in a BakerTweet: designed by Poke London, it's an easy way for bakeries …